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Back The Silenced Women Save as PDF
Chapters (50)
  1. Front Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  5. Part I
  6. Chapter One
  7. Chapter Two
  8. Chapter Three
  9. Chapter Four
  10. Chapter Five
  11. Chapter Six
  12. Chapter Seven
  13. Chapter Eight
  14. Chapter Nine
  15. Chapter Ten
  16. Chapter Eleven
  17. Chapter Twelve
  18. Chapter Thirteen
  19. Part II
  20. Chapter Fourteen
  21. Chapter Fifteen
  22. Chapter Sixteen
  23. Chapter Seventeen
  24. Chapter Eighteen
  25. Chapter Nineteen
  26. Chapter Twenty
  27. Chapter Twenty-One
  28. Chapter Twenty-Two
  29. Chapter Twenty-Three
  30. Chapter Twenty-Four
  31. Chapter Twenty-Five
  32. Chapter Twenty-Six
  33. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  34. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  35. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  36. Part III
  37. Chapter Thirty
  38. Chapter Thirty-One
  39. Chapter Thirty-Two
  40. Chapter Thirty-Three
  41. Chapter Thirty-Four
  42. Chapter Thirty-Five
  43. Chapter Thirty-Six
  44. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  45. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  46. Read on for a sneak peek at the next Violent Crime Investigations Team mystery!
  47. Chapter One
  48. Acknowledgments
  49. About the Author
  50. Back Cover

Mahler heard the words “your guy” and felt them register. A few hours earlier he might have jumped at the chance of personally arresting Partridge. But something had shifted. Maybe it was Susan Hart telling him that Partridge’s arrest would not change her death and her not wanting to be stuck saying the same things over and over. Maybe it was already done between Partridge and him.

“It’s okay,” he said. “You go.”

“You’re sure he’ll be at the park? If we’re wrong—”

“Just do it.” Mahler tapped the screen to end the call.

Coyle’s voice hung in the air. If we’re wrong—

(ii)

(FRIDAY, 1:00 P.M.)

Eden unlocked the back door of her condo and entered the kitchen. Except for a brief shower two days earlier, she hadn’t been home since Tuesday morning. With the shades drawn, the room was dark and smelled of something rotten. She flipped on the light to look around. After the events of the last three days, she was surprised at the normalcy of her home.

Driving home, she’d thought of the cases’ ending. How was she supposed to feel? How did the rest of the VCI team feel? She should have a sense of accomplishment. They identified the killer of Elise Durand and found evidence to convict Irwin Partridge. So why did she have a sense of something left unfinished?

Eden kicked off her shoes without unlacing them and walked across the kitchen in her socks. She turned on the countertop TV. When she pulled out the tie, her hair felt dirty and greasy. She removed the holster and gun and put them on the kitchen table. Emptying pockets, she found her cell phone and saw a missed call from Coyle. She hadn’t heard it while she was driving. She reached to call him back but stopped to watch a breaking news story on the TV about a bank robbery in southeast Santa Rosa.

She opened the refrigerator door to investigate the source of the room’s rank odor. In front of her, prominently on the middle shelf, sat an opened bottle of pinot grigio. The culprit for the smell was probably beside the wine—a milk carton past its due date. Or, the yellowing celery stalks, jammed in a glass of water in a forlorn attempt at restoration. Or, the brown-topped guacamole on the shelf below. She would deal with them later.